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“Eye for an Eye?”

The death row inmate was worried about its prudence, but supporters of Kenneth Foster Jr. decided nonetheless to cluster Sunday in front of the church that Governor Rick Perry attends in Austin to protest Foster’s looming lethal injection scheduled for Thursday.

The gathering upset some congregants at Tarrytown United Methodist Church, who considered it an invasion of sacred ground. To the activists, though, there was no place more suited in which to raise questions about Perry’s ideas of right and wrong.

“This is the place (Perry) goes to reflect on morality,” said Bryan McCann, spokesman for the grassroots Save Kenneth Foster Campaign. “So we think this is an appropriate place to ask him to be held accountable for it.”

Supporters of Foster, 30, have depicted the inmate’s case as an egregious misapplication of the death penalty. A jury sentenced Foster to death for the 1996 killing of Michael LaHood Jr., although he did not fire the gun that killed the victim.

Earlier that night, Foster had picked up three friends and taken part in four armed robberies around San Antonio. He was behind the wheel when one of those friends, Mauriceo Brown, got out of the car and shot LaHood, the son of a local attorney.

The jury convicted Foster of capital murder in a joint trial with Brown, finding that Foster had conspired to rob LaHood and should have anticipated he’d be killed. In deciding his punishment, the same jury found that Foster actually anticipated LaHood’s slaying and sentenced him to death.

Foster and his supporters insist Brown acted alone, but appeals have so far failed to overturn his death sentence. Brown was executed last year.

An application urging Perry to commute Foster’s death sentence is pending before the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, which is expected to make a recommendation to Perry on Tuesday.

Sunday, the governor never showed up to church. But the protest managed to elicit some ardent exchanges between congregants and the activists, who numbered about 15. One held a sign that read, “Don’t be Pontius Perry.”

“This is church,” bristled one woman as she walked past the protesters.

“Jesus died from the death penalty, too,” retorted Jordan Buckley, 25. “If Jesus died and came back as Kenneth Foster, you’d be walking away right now.”

Foster’s supporters had agreed before the protest to remain quiet and respectful outside the church. In a telephone call from death row on Saturday, Foster had expressed concerns about their plan, said Dana Cloud, a supporter.

“Kenneth was worried we would antagonize the governor,” Cloud said.

Some churchgoers were antagonized.

A couple leaving the church angrily asked Morgan if he knew the name of the victim in Foster’s case. He hadn’t known. Indignant, Cynthia and Charlie Wilcox walked on.

“It’s extremely rude to protest outside of a church,” Cynthia Wilcox, 44, said. “Every human life has value, (but) innocent human life is more valuable than someone who’s been driving around committing violent crimes.”

Other congregants seemed to appreciate the presence of the activists. One actually signed a petition urging Perry to commute Foster’s sentence. Another woman walking into the church pumped her fist and said, “Awesome. Good job.”

Relatives of LaHood support Foster’s death sentence, although they say they feel compassion for the inmate’s relatives, including Foster’s 11-year-old daughter. Nicholas LaHood, the victim’s brother, said he grappled in his own Christian faith with the value of Foster’s execution.

After talking with his own pastor, Nicholas LaHood found peace.

“He quoted a scripture,” he said. “It was ‘eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.'”